All This Music Must Fade Spotify
All This Music Must Fade YouTube

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where the Who come back from nostalgia to release a track superior to anything on the Active Rock chart?

One in which you no longer have to have a great voice and you can get away with uttering platitudes, getting a facelift to look young and hip when you’re not.

The amazing thing is there’s no 808, none of those synthetic handclaps, it sounds exactly like the Who. Remember when all the bands were unique? Come on, who sounded exactly like the Who? The key was to go down your own path.

But somewhere during the nineties, when radio still ruled, when MTV went all hip-hop and pop, it was determined by the gatekeepers that no one wanted to hear the music of the old farts. I realized this when Danny Buch told me that programmers rejected Robert Plant’s “29 Palms.” Sometimes people return to form, Neil Young is a perfect example. Suddenly Plant releases a near masterpiece, “Fate Of Nations,” and no one cares anymore.
As for the twenty first century… Most oldsters have given up putting out new music, believing it’s going to go straight into the dumper, that no one cares and it’s hard to get motivated when no one is listening. But somehow Pete Townshend maintains his edge, the edge of the blade.

I don’t care
I know you’re gonna hate this song

Yup, it’s like Townshend is living in 2019, reflecting on the world we live in, where if you play new music the audience gets up for a bathroom break and haters online will tell you it sucks.

It’s not new, not diverse
It won’t light up your parade
It’s just simple verse

The oldsters and the critics retain the concept of the holy grail, they remark that the new music sucks, which in truth it does, of course there’s good stuff out there, too much of which goes unrecognized, but nothing approaches the tracks of the classic acts. And it’s easy for the cognoscenti to be haters, you’ve got to be cool, incomprehensible by the masses, out there.

But now no one cares about that stuff either.

All this music will fade
Just like the edge of a blade

Townshend’s right. The Beatles will be remembered for a while, but almost everything else will fall by the wayside. Remember Steve Jobs? Ask someone under fifteen, they might not know his name. Furthermore, get old enough, having lived through the trials and tribulations, and you realize…it’s all b.s., we’re here and then we’re gone, if you’re trying to leave your mark you’re on the wrong path.

I don’t mind
Other guys ripping off my song
I’d be lying
If I said I never done no wrong
All this sound that we share
Has already been played
And it hangs in the air

We’re all in it together. How sad is it that fifty years later greedy attorneys are convincing broke heirs to sue the classics, costing everybody money. As for the new music, everybody’s scared, where there’s a hit there’s a writ.

Yours is yours and what’s mine is mine
And what’s mine is mine and what’s mine is yours
WHO GIVES A FUCK?

Yup, listen to the end and Pete utters that profanity. He’s lived long enough to have seen truth, it’s about the music more than commerce, he doesn’t take the music that seriously, it’s only rock and roll, right?

And I like it.

Now “All This Music Must Fade” is not as great as “Baba O’Riley” or “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” but it’s in the same league, and anybody creative will tell you if you get motivated and keep at it that’s when genius emerges, and it’s best when it’s singular, one person…hell, most of the Beatle songs were written by either Paul or John, even though they both got credit, today songs have so many writers and are worked over by executives to the point where their essence is lost.

And I love Pete’s solo stuff.

But what puts “All This Music Must Fade” over the top is Roger’s vocal. This is definitely a Who song.

And being a Who song, it’s got Pete’s slashing guitar, and the tinkling synths in the background, it’s powerful, but it’s not noise.

“All This Music Must Fade” is not a bathroom song, you want to hang with the crowd and listen.

And if you still have a big rig, if your stereo still has power, if you’re not limited to AirPods, you can’t help but turn it up and become enveloped in the sound. That’s the power of rock and roll, it squeezes everything out.

It’s like we’re lost in the desert, like we’ve lost the formula, all those new rock acts, they’re retreads, bombastic, with little sense of dynamics, never mind melody.

It may sound like I’m overstating the case. But it’s like being in a cave with no light and stumbling upon a beacon which illuminates your world and makes you optimistic, a believer once again.

Pete may be telling us it’s all gonna fade…

But it’s everything to us.

This is not nostalgia, it’s brand new, and the key point is listening to it doesn’t make you think you’re fifteen, you’re old and craggy, but your music still matters, Pete and Roger are still on your wavelength, they’re delivering for you.

Oh, what a glorious sound.

And it is all about the sound.

And the power.

It could move mountains, change society. It could not be denied back then…

And suddenly it can’t once again!

They’re all on the same page:

1. The Bidens are guilty of something and it needs to be investigated.

2. Trump committed no crime.

3. The Democrats are out to get Trump, and they’ve been on this path from day one.

Yes, Trump is positively off his rocker, but one thing is for sure, he’s an UNSTABLE genius. Come on, admitting that he did it in Ukraine, and then imploring the Chinese to do the same thing publicly? This is not playing by the rules, this is jujitsu.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are afraid. Of public opinion. Polling ad infinitum to make sure they don’t step on anybody’s toes and prevent people from voting Democratic in 2020.

That’s “Democratic” I said. The right wing code is the DEMOCRAT party. Listen closely, all the Republicans say that, including Trump, they want to take the imprimatur, the meaning of “democratic,” away from the Democratic party, and they’re doing a good job of it.

Now one thing the left wing media does not understand is it’s been vilified to irrelevance by the right. Listen to Fox News, seemingly every night Tucker Carlson excoriates the “New York Times” and the “Washington Post.” He nitpicks, says they’re duplicitous and need to apologize and if you had this message hammered into you every night, you’d believe it.

That’s right, the right has neutralized facts. Everything’s up for grabs, even that which has been proven. Global warming? Anything involving science? It’s undecided. As for Biden’s activity with Ukraine re his son…every newspaper has debunked it. Everybody wanted that prosecutor gone, not only the Americans, but once again facts don’t matter, you can twist them anyway you want to, because there’s no one true source.

The battle for hearts and minds is fought in only two places…Fox News and online. That’s it, done. As for the radio talk shows like Rush…that’s so last century.

And online, you can pretty much say whatever you want, as long as you don’t threaten someone or break the law.

So what we’re fighting for here, and the Democrats don’t understand this, is hearts and minds. The Democrats think it’s the 1950s, as long as their position is right, that’s all that matters. They don’t advocate, they don’t fight for it. Oh, there are a couple of players on the left wing side, like Paul Begala and James Carville. Listen to them, they get incensed, they recite the party line, they almost turn into cartoons, but they’re loyal to the team and stay on message.

Like the Republicans.

One thing’s for sure, Biden’s candidacy is toast. Yup, he let Trump and the right define him. He’s shady, he must have done something wrong.

Biden had to go postal from day one. He should have raised a ruckus. Gone insane like Trump himself. That’s the only thing that works against the Donald. Instead, Biden didn’t start fighting back until now, when he’s no longer on the front page. Biden gives the impression he’s covering up, that he did something wrong. The public believes his behavior should be investigated by a 2-1 margin according to “USA Today.” You’d think he’d realize he’s in jeopardy, that his candidacy is in a death spiral, but he’s still behaving like Trump never happened and it’s still the 1970s.

Like Hillary Clinton.

Hillary was on Rachel Maddow last night. She still hasn’t gotten the message. Oh, she was erudite and insightful, but nearly monotonistic (that may not be a word, but you get what I’m driving at). That playbook went out the window with Trump. We don’t want educated wonks, we want people who will fight for us, not government insiders. It’s about personality, baby, and Clinton just doesn’t have it, not strong enough to play the new game.

That’s why Bernie was so successful in 2016. The intensity and the truth. If his delivery hadn’t been so emotional, he wouldn’t have gotten any traction.

As for the canard that the Democrats wanted to get rid of Trump from day one…

The Democrats don’t surface nearly thirty years of Republican stonewalling, from the Clinton era until now. Hell, under Obama the Republicans were the party of no, and they even admitted it. But is there anybody in the news fighting back on the left?

OF COURSE NOT!

As for Trump’s behavior…every Republican has been talking about Johnson today…as in ANDREW Johnson! That’s right, we have to go back to the 1860s for insight, before the automobile, never mind the internet. I mean they’re defending Andrew Johnson when we learned in school he was a b.s. President. But NO, the Republicans have resurrected him, he was unjustly tried, just like Trump!

As for Trump committing a crime… Nowhere is it said that impeachment requires a crime. But everywhere there was a Republican today, they uttered this message, and they wouldn’t back down.

How in the hell are the Democrats supposed to win?

Instead of saying they’re having an impeachment “inquiry,” they should be saying it’s a done deal, it’s just a matter of the legal process, Trump is guilty and he’s gonna go, end of story. Instead, Pelosi and the wimps keep deferring to the “process.” Are the Republicans talking about the process? Hell no! They’re like the sweepers in curling, hell, you’ve seen them in the Olympics, ensuring the stone lands in the right spot. Meanwhile, the Democrats are sitting on the sidelines debating whether curling is a sport while their asses are getting kicked.

If someone admits everything can there be an impeachable offense?

Of course. But if you’re a member of the hoi polloi, if you’re just a rank and file voter, you start to believe it can’t be that bad.

Trump and the Republicans are so far ahead of the Democrats they don’t even seem to be playing the same game. All the Democrats can do is sit by silently as Trump makes news, says and does inane things over and over again. They think this is enough to win. Didn’t they learn that Trump rode this behavior to victory in 2016? Trump swears, the Democrats can’t even utter the words, they say “blank.” Meanwhile, everybody in America says these things.

You’ve got to fight to win.

But the Democrats don’t. They gave up a Supreme Court seat, they’ve been the victims of gerrymandering and voter suppression. But all they can say is they’ve been ripped-off, that it’s unfair. How is it working for them? IT’S NOT!

Today’s news cycle is uber-fast. People don’t remember what happened this morning, never mind last week. Come on, Trump is bloviating every day, we’ve lost track of what he’s said. So, the Democrats will work very slowly, afraid of any blowback, and they’ll sacrifice the narrative, they’ll grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

Don’t get started unless you’re gonna finish the deal. Either Trump is guilty and needs to go or forget about it.

As for those candidates running next year…

They’ve got to fight back now, build their identities now, because one thing’s for sure, the Republicans are gonna do their best to paint them negatively. Hell, they killed Biden in a week! And they killed the Clintons and… Don’t you know that the Democrats are a bleeding-heart liberal party that wants to overspend your money on unworthy projects and unworthy people, that taxes are inherently bad and men have the right to tell women what to do?

Yup, the Republicans keep saying the above message over and over again, to the point the Democrats are afraid to even SAY the word “tax.” The belief is raising taxes is a nonstarter, you’re going to automatically lose, it’s a third rail topic. Give Sanders credit, he owns the truth, of course your taxes are gonna go up if there’s Medicare for All.

And at least Warren said that nobody likes their health insurance company. A truism we all know.

But what do the Democrats say about these two authentic candidates? THEY’RE LOSERS! THEY’RE TOO FAR TO THE LEFT! And then the Republicans double-down on these messages and it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Being right is not enough. You’ve got to have game. You’ve got to play hard. You’ve got to convince people.

Right now, only the Republicans are doing that.

“How Dirty Honey Became the First Unsigned Band to Top the Mainstream Rock Songs Chart”

They’re managed by Mark DiDia and Winky Fairorth.
This is what Winky wrote me last March:

“I play ice hockey here in LA with a great bunch of guys. One of them has been working hard on a music career with his band. His name is Marc Labelle and he’s the lead singer and a big fan of rock. I have showed him several of your letters regarding the industry and how to do this properly in 2019. Not that you say what to do as much as you say what NOT to do. They are out playing club dates now across the US. 24 dates in 30 days driving the sprinter van around. Good old fashioned hard work.

I’ve heard you speak a lot about Greta and I have also heard you say there ain’t enough rock. I think these boys have something. It’s all their own music and it’s produced at a very high level. They will open for Slash this summer and hit a few festivals.

They released an EP today and I wanted you to hear it. I’ll be curious to hear your take. I’ve been in it so long with them now that I feel like I can’t be objective any more.

Enjoy Dirty Honey!”

I was wary, the guys in Dirty Honey are nowhere near as young as those in Greta. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t love the song. It sounds like rock, but despite containing the building blocks, I didn’t find that irresistible hook. I mean the chorus is weak, right?

But then Winky e-mailed me yesterday. And told me to “Check out my boyz:)” and provided a link to the above “Billboard” article.

Now the band is with Red Light. And not only does DiDia have radio experience, Mark Gorlick is doing the promotion, and he used to work at major labels.

And then I got e-mail from John Boyle raving about the track and then…

I figured I was wrong.

So today, I pulled up the numbers.

“When I’m Gone” has 2,204,532 streams on Spotify. Respectable, too many acts have under seven figures, but #50 on the U.S. Spotify chart, “Writing on the Wall,” had 441,590 streams YESTERDAY! As for number one, Post Malone’s “Circles,” it had 1,431,492 streams on Spotify yesterday.

But maybe rockers are not streamers.

So I went to YouTube. “When I’m Gone” has 333,586 streams…THAT’S PEANUTS!

So maybe the “Billboard” article was wrong, let me go to Mediabase, the radio Bible. Yup, there was Dirty Honey’s “When I’m Gone” topping the Active Rock chart, Winky’s information was correct.

But then I looked at the number of spins, “When I’m Gone” had 1,721 spins, with an audience rating of 5.262.

Number one on Triple A was Cage The Elephant’s “Social Cues,” it had…661 spins this week. 661!! That’s not even a thousand, it’s positively anemic! The audience rating was 1.151.

Lana Del Rey’s “Doin’ Time” tops the Alternative chart, with 3,339 spins this week, with an audience of 11.186. But she gets a lot of press, she’s got an established career. Illenium is number two, with 2,961 spins and a smaller audience share of 8.103.

Now I’m seeing how small these numbers are, I wonder how they compare to Top Forty.

Lizzo is number one there. With 19,384 spins this week, with an audience number of 95.136.

But she’s a phenomenon, how about a new act?

Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved” is number three and has 16,906 spins, with an audience number of 75.303.

In other words, Lizzo’s cut is eleven times bigger than Dirty Honey’s.

It’s almost like rock doesn’t even exist, it’s a zit on the ass of the business. But if you’re in that sphere, there’s absolutely no reason to sign with a major label, nada. The Red Light team did it all by their lonesome, for their management percentage, the act owns the track and does not pay a label. So, it’s a win!

Furthermore, some of these rock acts sell tickets. They may not be big on the radio or streaming, but they’ve got live audiences, and that’s where the money is. Is it that every rock listener is buying a ticket?

Streaming and radio are dominated by hip-hop/pop. But, the truth is hip-hop/pop is a smaller fraction of the marketplace than ever before. Sure, there’s a chart, but not everyone on it can sell tickets, a lot of acts come and go. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Well, I’d like to tell you “Dirty Honey” is slam dunk irresistible, but I don’t think so. If you want a new version of the old sound, it delivers, as far as inspiring new, younger listeners…I don’t think so.

But, once again, unless you make hip-hop/pop, don’t sign with a major label, you can truly do it yourself. It’s nearly free to get on the streaming services, but the truth is those guys at Red Light are experienced.

So what does this portend?

Hip-hop/pop will continue to have an ever decreasing share of the pie. But what will fill the growing hole is unknown. It’s not really driven by radio, and it’s not really driven by streaming. Somehow, people are finding out. But so far, there hasn’t been one track that everyone agrees can be pushed to mainstream success. Then again, maybe all-dominating successes are history.

Dirty Honey’s “When I’m Gone”

Phil Carson was there, in the heyday of Atlantic Records in the U.K. He signed AC/DC and was the only guy at the label Led Zeppelin would talk to. He’s managed everyone from Plant and Page to ELP and still handles Foreigner. This guy’s got stories!

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